Meta

Discovery as Anti-Search

If some visions for the future of search are realized, then we’ll be surfing a Web where search doesn’t matter. The emphasis will instead shift to discovery.

Through discovery, when you read your favorite newspaper online, you’re presented with a wealth of links from around the Web that should be of interest to you, including other articles, related books or products, or video clips, whether or not you’d expect them to be directly relevant. Amazon.com does this regularly, such as when it told me that customers who bought the Black & Decker 3.4 PS550B Handsaw also bought a 5-pound bag of Haribo Gummi Bears and the movie “Borat.” It’s through the power of discovery that a site like Home Depot could suggest, “After busting your butt with this handsaw, why don’t you unwind with five pounds of Gummi Bears and a satire about a Kazakh journalist touring America?”

The better discovery gets, the less search should matter, at least in theory.